Search Bosnia and Herzegovina aviation news

Monday, October 31, 2016

Wizz air first flight from London Luton Airport has landed in Tuzla yesterday with 108 passanagers on board of Airbus 320. Today Wizz air has started flights from Billund in Denmark. 152 passangers arrived from Billund on first flight on board of Wizz air Airbus 320. Bookings for Billund are much greater then London due to the fact that Bosnian passport holders still require visa to enter United Kingdom. Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina can travel visa free to all European countries except United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Republic of Kosovo and Belarus.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Acting director for development and marketing of the Tuzla
International Airport Enver Jukanović has confirmed today, expansion of the
airport’s terminal building, starting soon with completion set for the end of
March 2017. Current terminal building was designed for handling 100.000 passengers
per year, and its running over its capacity. This year alone, Tuzla Airport
will handle over 300.000 passengers. There is urgent need for space in all
areas of the building and larger terminal building is priority for the development
of the airport.

Wizz air will start 3 new routes this year: today first flight
from London Luton will touch down (W64288), tomorrow flight to Billund in Denmark will
be introduced with two weekly flights,
and from December 17 Tuzla will be connected to German capital Berlin, with two
weekly flights. At the end of March 2017 Wizz Air will add one more Airbus A320
aircraft to its base at Tuzla International Airport. With 2 Airbus 320 based at
the airport Wizz air will offer over 600.000 seats to and from Tuzla Airport. Expansion
of the terminal building is worth around four million BAM (€ 2 million).
Construction of the building will be financed from airports own funds, help is expected from Government of Tuzla County and Government of Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Bosnia and Herzegovina has received approval from the European
Union for transport of fresh beef and beef products across territory of European
Union to Turkey and Russia, which will significantly reduce transportation
costs, and possibly increase the purchase price of beef in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

Each country
individually needs to approved the transport. In this case Bulgaria and Greece, either or both.

"We have been informed that we have received permission
from Brussels and now we are at the stage of obtaining the consent of all the
countries involved. It is a process that will take some time, but on the end, I believe
that all countries will give the consent," said Mirko Šarovic, Minister of
Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stressing that
in the near future Ministry is scheduled to hold talks with Turkish
representatives of the quota for export of the meat in the year 2017.

He also said that the provision of conditions for transport
by road via Bulgaria significantly makes transport cheaper, which will put our
products in more competitive place than is currently the case. Bosnia and
Herzegovina is exporting meat to Turkey by air only because of the European
Union law which does not allow land
transport through its territory due to the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina
still does not have permission to sell this type of goods on European Union market.
Air cargo transport to Turkey as of now is paid by the meat purchaser in
Turkey, which is directly reflected in lower price of meat in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Transport by land will benefit Bosnian farmers the most, but same time it will hurt the airports!

According to unofficial information from the one of Bosnian airports, the air transportation
of meat from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Turkey costs about 5.000 euros per
flight (60 tons). The price of truck transportation of 25 tons of meat would be
around 1.500 to 1.800 euros, depending on the destination in Turkey.

This approval from EU, could have negative effect on airports in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially Tuzla International Airport, since all meat export
from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Turkey goes from Tuzla Airport.
In 2015 MNG Airlines Cargo transported meat from Bosnia and Herzegovina to
Turkey from Banjaluka International Airport, while in 2016 Tuzla
Airport scored the deal of organizing the transport of meat from Bosnia and
Herzegovina to Turkey. Cargo flights are very profitable for airports, bringing
around 1.000 euros per flight to the airport. Loosing these flights would mean
big financial loos for Tuzla International Airport.

In addition to the expansion and reconstruction of existing
facilities, Tuzla International Airport is implementing another important
project. The airport is building a customs terminal for the storage of aviation
fuel JET A1. The project cost is around one million Bosnian marks (€500.000)

Last year Tuzla International Airport was granted a license
for supply of fuel and airline aircraft fuel JET A1. In order to accommodate increase in number of aircraft movements, and most important, be able to accommodate Wizz air’s expansion at
the airport, and increased fuel consumption, airport needs to have a fuel storage
with proper customs terminal to carry out fuel sales.

After obtaining all necessary permits for building the fuel
storage, the work has started last month. The plan for construction completion
is expected in early March of next year. New fuel terminal will open just in
time for Wizz air’s stationing of its second Airbus A320 at the airport and starting many new flights from the airport.

"The investment is estimated at around one million
Bosnian marks. We are going to finance this project from its own resources, mainly
from the income airport has made from Wizz Air flights. From 27th of
March we will be able to supply the airlines and aircraft with the fuel from our
warehouse. For our airport it is very important because we wont have to pay VAT
in advance, " explains director of Tuzla Airport Mr. Karasalihović.

The construction of this fuel terminal will fulfill all environmental
standards of the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For increased protection, all fuel
tanks will be placed on rubber surfaces. Control of the fuel quality will be
carried out in a newly built laboratory at Tuzla International Airport.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Mostar International Airport has received 250.000 Euros from
IPA funds (IPA is European Union Pre-Accession Assistance). Currently works are
in progress on the terminal building of the airport, which should be
completed by the beginning of December. The building will have a much larger space, increasing terminals capacity of passenger’s flow. In addition to the
reconstruction of the terminal building, the airport purchased the ambulance vehicle,
which is necessary for the safety of passengers.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

European airport trade association, ACI EUROPE released
its traffic report for 2015. This is the only air transport report which
includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights to and from Europe: full
service, low cost, charter and others.

Passenger traffic across the European airport network in
2015 grew by an average +5.2%.

At EU airports, the average increase in passenger traffic
was +5.6% with airports in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Hungary,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania achieving double-digit growth. Meanwhile,
non-EU airports reported diminished growth of +3.9%. This was mainly due to a
significant decline in demand for air travel across Russian and Ukrainian
airports, as well as almost flat growth in Norway – despite a stellar increase
in passenger traffic in Iceland and sustained growth at most Turkish airports.

Freight traffic at Europe’s airports only grew by +0.7%,
as international trade remained subdued. Aircraft movements saw an increase of
+2.2%.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “2015
has been a very good year in terms of passenger traffic, with European airports
welcoming an estimated 1,95 billion passengers. 20% of them achieved a
double-digit increase and many broke new traffic records – mostly fueled by the
continued growth of low cost airlines and selected non-EU airlines. EU airports
generally performed extremely well, despite Germany and France being impacted
by airline & ATC strikes and the Paris terror attacks. Remarkably,
Istanbul-Atatürk airport became the 3rd busiest European airport with 61,8
million passengers, after London-Heathrow (74,9 million) and Paris-Charles de
Gaulle (65,7 million). It should be noted however that small regional airports*
across the continent underperformed the European average, with their passenger
volume only increasing by +3,8%. This is indicative of traffic growth becoming
more concentrated and less inclusive."

COMPARING 2008 AND 2015

Commenting on the air traffic recovery since the global
financial crisis, Jankovec added: “While the EU economy did not even grow by
+3% between 2008 and 2015, passenger traffic at EU airports increased by +13,6%
over the same period. Such a wide gap is pointing to a lasting discontinuity in
the usual relationship between GDP growth and passenger traffic performance.
This is reflective of new market dynamics, changing consumer behaviors and the
increased importance of air transport for the European economy.”

CURRENT OUTLOOK

Looking at the outlook for the coming months, Jankovec
concluded: “The positive momentum created by improving economic conditions in
the Eurozone, low oil prices and loose monetary policy is likely to persist for
most of 2016. This should help keep passenger traffic growing - except for
Russian airports. However, downside risks abound, and they are mainly of a
geopolitical nature – both homegrown and external. These range from the
unprecedented migration crisis and its repercussions on Schengen to the UK
Brexit, heightened terrorist threats, instability in the Middle East &
North Africa and deteriorating prospects in emerging markets."

BREAKDOWN BY TRAFFIC CATEGORY

Over the full year, airports welcoming more than 25
million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25
million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million
passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per
year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment +3.7%, +6.3%, +7.1% and
+5.5%.

The airports which reported the highest increases in
passenger traffic during 2015 (compared with 2014) are as follows:

Detailed analysis of flight schedule in upcoming winter
timetable of flights. Analysis is based on the airlines scheduling system with
flights to and from Sarajevo. Winter timetable of flights is running from
November 1st to March 31st, 2017. During winter months
Sarajevo International Airport is experiencing problems with fog and very low
visibility, causing flight cancellations, delays and diversions. For Sarajevo
International Airport major restrictions is a mountain terrain close to the airport, that requires a
high approach, precision and a big inclination angle in a procedure of unsuccessful
approach (go around) and landing.
Sarajevo International Airport is equipped with ILS CAT I. Implementation
of ILS categories (CAT II or CAT III) is impossible due to the position of the
airport in the urban area and the terrain in front of the runway that should be
free of obstacles for at least 1000 meters.

In upcoming winter schedule of flights Sarajevo Airport will
be connected to 11 destinations, served by 10 airlines. Turkish Airlines is
still airline number one, in terms of seats offered, followed by Pegasus
Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, etc…

Istanbul with its two airports (Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen
Airports) is still most served destination from and to Sarajevo, with 17 weekly
flights (10 flights from Ataturk airport are operated by Turkish Airlines, one
daily flight from Sabiha Gokcen Airport is operated by Pegasus Airlines). Both
Airlines will operate flights to Sarajevo with Boeing 737-800. Turkish Airlines
Boeing 737-800 is offering 150 seats in two class configurations, while Pegasus
Airlines is offering 189 seats in all economy configuration.

Austrian Airlines will be operating 12 weekly flights from/to
Vienna to Sarajevo. Flights will be operated using old Fokker 100 and Fokker
70. Austrian Airlines is in process of replacing its Fokker fleet with Embraer
195, which will operate Sarajevo flights.

Number of seats offered from/to Sarajevo Airport during winter timetable

Number of seats (by the airline) offered from/to Sarajevo Airport during winter timetable

Number of seats (by the month) offered from/to Sarajevo Airport during winter timetable

Number of flights (by the month) offered from/to Sarajevo Airport during winter timetable

Detailed information of number of flights by the airline and aircraft operated, number of seats offered from/to Sarajevo Airport during winter timetable.